Cherokee County was established by European Americans on January 9, 1836. The county was created on territory of the Cherokee Nation in the nineteenth century, which had encompassed an area of the southern Appalachians, including northeastern Alabama and parts of adjacent present-day Georgia, Tennessee, and North and South Carolina. The Cherokee were forceably removed by the US government in what was known as the Trail of Tears in 1838. Cherokee County was created by the Alabama legislature on 1836 January 9 following the Treaty of New Echota, 1835 December 29 which was never accepted by the elected tribal leadership or a majority of the Cherokee people because it was signed by a group lacking the authority to sign any documents on behalf of the tribe and despite a tribal law forbidding anyone to sign such a treaty.